Archive of Our Own ^beta

Riku got the call in the middle of the night, when he should have been sleeping but was instead laying still in Momo’s friend’s guestroom and going over all the ways a vampire hunt could kill or at least severely injure a human caught up in it. Blood loss, garlic allergy, “accidentally” getting stabbed with a wooden stake—but that was a hard accident to make happen, and what kind of person was allergic to garlic anyways? Maybe if a vampire followed them back from a hunt—but one, why would they walk into so obvious a trap, and two, Momo liked Tsukumo Ryo, and he liked Tsukumo Ryo’s money, and he liked Tsukumo Ryo’s safehouses, and he even liked it when Tsukumo Ryo pretended to be a vampire and bit him on the neck hard enough to bruise, and worst of all he liked it when Tsukumo Ryo fucked him, even when they both knew Riku was awake and hearing everything in the next room.

Riku was halfway through a viscerally comforting daydream in which the vampire who had once been his brother Tenn broke into the house and ate Ryo before he or Momo could do anything about it when his phone rang. It was Mitsuki—Mitsuki who was probably awake at 4:30 in the morning because of his family’s bakery and not because he’d been out holding a vampire down as Momo stabbed it a dozen times and stuffed its chest with enough fresh garlic to last a restaurant a month before going back to Tsukumo Ryo’s house and pretending to sleep. Talking to Mitsuki always made Riku feel better, and it gave him an excuse to break Momo and Ryo’s plausible deniability out there on the living room table. He answered on the second ring.

“Hi, Mitsuki!” he said, cheerful at the very prospect of hearing his voice. “What’s up? Are you and Iori taking the morning shift at Fonte Chocolat today? Can I come and visit and help you guys open?” Can you please give me a reason to get out of Momo’s awful friend’s house?

“Riku, you’re—awake,” said Mitsuki, surprised, upset, his voice shaking a little. Riku felt his stomach sink.

“Yeah, uh. It’s my job, we had a, um, a project tonight, and we finished late enough that I figured I could just nap during the day.”

This wasn’t really a lie. He just kept out the important things, like the fact that he was unemployed and his “job” was really hunting vampires and he didn’t get paid any actual money for it and the real reason he didn’t sleep wasn’t because he was busy but rather was because Tsukumo Ryo’s house wasn’t safe to sleep in, even for Momo who did sleep here, who slept here quite often, because he had a bad criminal record and couldn’t get an apartment of his own.

“Oh. Uh, that sounds nice,” said Mitsuki. “Listen, Riku, there’s something important I need to tell you. Are you sitting down?”

Technically Riku was laying down, but now he moved into a sitting position, leaning against the headboard of Tsukumo Ryo’s guestroom bed. “I am now,” he said. “Mitsuki, what—what happened?”

“You know how Iori’s school friend, Isumi Haruka, disappeared a few months back?” Mitsuki said. “And nobody’s been able to find any leads on what happened to him.”

“Yeah,” said Riku. He had asked if it was vampires and Iori had asked if he needed a psychological evaluation, and Sougo upon hearing this had gone very quiet and scribbled something down in his planner, and then Nagi had suggested that if it was vampires then they should all become magical girls to fight them off and rescue Haruka, and then Yamato had said he’d rather die in a vampire apocalypse than ever become a magical girl, and things had devolved into their usual chaos from there. Riku still thought that maybe it had been vampires who had gotten Haruka. You never found a body, when it was vampires.

“He showed up tonight, in Iori’s bedroom,” said Mitsuki. “There’s something seriously wrong with him, I don’t know what, but according to the ambulance Iori called he was eating raw meat and behaving erratically.”

—Raw meat? So not vampires. Werewolves maybe? Were werewolves real? Or ghouls. Ghouls were kind of like undead, so maybe they existed. He’d have to ask Momo later.

“Then he attacked Iori.”

“What?!” said Riku. “Is Iori okay?!”

“Probably,” said Mitsuki. “We’re at the hospital now. He’s under observation, but they said he can probably go home later today. The biggest problem was blood loss—”

So maybe vampires after all?

“—but he might end up losing all movement in his hand. The doctors say it’s too early to tell.”

His hand? Didn’t vampires usually go for the neck? But he couldn’t ask that over the phone—Mitsuki would think he was crazy.

“Can I—come over and see him? When he’s back from the hospital or he’s allowed visitors?” Riku asked.

“Yeah, of course,” Mitsuki said. “Of course. That’s why I called you first. I know you guys are—close.” Which was a polite way of saying that he knew they were dating behind his back and was just waiting for Iori to come out and admit that he was wrong and Mitsuki was right, that maybe this romance thing wasn’t so bad after all and boys could be really really cute and it could be nice to kiss people.

“Thanks,” said Riku. “Um, I’m…pretty far out of town, so is it okay if I catch a ride with my mentor, and if he comes with me, maybe? —It’s still Momo-san,” he added, because things had gotten weird with Momo and Mitsuki last year and Riku had gotten hopeful that they would get Tsukumo Ryo out of their lives and then Tsukumo Ryo had shown up at Fonte Chocolat and it had been bad and Mitsuki had pretended he didn’t cry, but he was worse at hiding those things than Momo was, and Iori had sworn up and down that if he ever saw Tsukumo Ryo around anywhere ever again he’d kill him on the spot, and Tsukumo Ryo had gotten banned from Fonte Chocolat for public acts of indecency.

“Oh! Yeah, that’s fine,” said Mitsuki, “as long as it’s just you two.”

Riku hated riding in cars with Tsukumo Ryo. In a car, you couldn’t get away.

“Don’t worry,” he said. “If Tsukumo tries to come along I’ll just walk.”

“Wh—don’t do that!” said Mitsuki. “That’s dangerous. And how far away are you, anyway?”

“It’s only about five miles to the train station,” said Riku. “I can walk five miles, probably. It’s fine.”

“Don’t do that,” said Mitsuki. “Iori and Haruka are already in the hospital, we don’t need you there too. Okay?”

“The hospital is a better place than Tsukumo Ryo’s car,” Riku muttered.

Mitsuki laughed. “It’s not that I don’t believe you,” he said. “I just don’t want you getting hurt too. Okay? There is something seriously wrong with both of them.”

Riku believed that—it was why he wanted Momo there. But probably if he mentioned the possibility of vampires Momo wouldn’t let Tsukumo Ryo come along. At the very least—he hoped he wouldn’t. The surest sign that Tsukumo Ryo would show up somewhere was always Riku being certain that he wouldn’t.

“Okay,” said Riku. “I’ll let you know, then. Sorry.”

“It’s okay,” said Mitsuki. “Just don’t put yourself in danger getting back into town, okay? Iori wouldn’t want that—and neither do I.”

Another reason not to let them know about vampires. They wouldn’t like to know how much danger Riku walked into as a vampire hunter’s apprentice—but he had to. For Tenn’s sake.

“I know,” said Riku. 

“Good,” said Mitsuki. “And—Momo’s at least getting some rest before driving you, right?”

Riku thought about what Momo was probably doing with Tsukumo Ryo right now, and then decided that one more little white lie couldn’t hurt. “Probably,” he said. “I mean, he feels safe to sleep here, unlike me.”

“Unlike you—? Riku, where are you? What’s going on?”

“Just normal things,” Riku said hastily. “Um—and about Isumi Haruka. What happened with him?”

“Honestly, nobody knows,” said Mituski, sighing a little. “The paramedics were horrified at his condition. They said he was like a living corpse—and there was something wrong with his teeth.”

Vampire fangs?

“His—his teeth?” asked Riku. “Like what?”

“They were like animal fangs,” said Mitsuki. “Like—like those vampires you’re so obsessed with. And he was pale and cold and covered in blood—not just Iori’s. It was awful. I haven’t heard anything else, but there was some kind of commotion earlier, and apparently a patient had to be physically gagged—but I don’t know if it was him or not.”

If Isumi Haruka was a vampire now, then it probably was him. Riku didn’t say that though. He just swallowed, and whispered, “That sounds bad.”

“Yeah,” said Mitsuki. “Yeah, it is. But—I mean, he was missing for almost a year. It’ll be a long road to recovery.”

People didn’t recover from getting turned into vampires. Riku knew this well—Momo had drilled it into him over the course of the past five years. Once someone was a vampire, they were dead—worse than dead. They were just monsters—just cruel killing machines who drew on their human memories only to better catch their prey. They didn’t love; they didn’t hope; they didn’t live. They only devoured. They didn’t even hate, Momo said. A wolfpack did not hate its prey, it only feasted. There was no morality in a vampire, no good and no evil. There was only danger—and a need to cull that danger.

“…Yeah,” said Riku. “And maybe it was someone else needing to be gagged.”

“I doubt it,” said Mitsuki. “I mean, I pity the kid, he’s obviously been through a lot. But he definitely also chewed up Iori’s hand so badly he passed out from blood loss, so even if he is gagged, I’m not that sympathetic.”

“Yeah, me neither,” said Riku. “I’ll go ask Momo-san for a ride right now.”

“Are you sure?” said Mitsuki. “It’s early, he’s probably still asleep—”

“He definitely isn’t,” said Riku.

“What kind of job do you two do, anyway?” said Mitsuki.

“Um,” said Riku. “Sorry, you’re breaking up.”

“Riku—”

“I’ll call you back later!”

Riku hung up, his hands shaking. If Iori’s missing friend had become a vampire—if Iori got turned into a vampire—no, no, that wouldn’t happen, that wasn’t possible, Mitsuki had said nothing about Iori acting strangely—or changing—or even having been force-fed blood. It was too early to assume that Iori was dead or worse. Momo would scold him about jumping to conclusions—or want to stake Iori as soon as he got home from the hospital, before night had the chance to fall. Riku couldn’t let that happen, not if he didn’t know for sure that Iori had turned. Killing vampires was one thing—it was a kindness and it was a mercy and it was the only thing you could do for the people they had once been. But killing humans was different, because humans weren’t monsters. Humans had a choice to kill or not to kill, to hurt or not to hurt. Vampires didn’t. You always had to be careful when someone might be turned or might not be. If you weren’t, then someone could really end up hurt. And now that someone was Iori—

Riku swallowed, swung his legs off the leg of the bed, checked that his inhaler was still in his pocket, crossed the room to pick up his backpack. It contained everything necessary for the destruction of a vampire, and he kept it in arm’s reach always when he wasn’t in Tsukumo Ryo’s house. The seconds it took to get to a backpack and remove the garlic, stakes, and holy water could mean the difference between life and death for any human in the vicinity, and it had been a long time since Riku had minded the idea of Tsukumo Ryo dying while he scrambled to get his weapons and just couldn’t make it in time. Tsukumo knew this, probably. He probably thought it very funny, that Riku had any hope at all that he might die, because Momo would protect him to the end no matter what Riku thought.

He knocked on the guestroom door before leaving, just to be polite, in the hopes that Momo and Tsukumo Ryo would care at all to pretend that they had been doing normal and fine and sanitary things out in the main living area. He got no response, of course, and when he stepped out into the hallway and saw that the living room was empty he felt a flutter of hope that maybe Momo and Tsukumo Ryo were actually doing it in a bedroom, or maybe even sleeping. Those hopes were dashed, though, when he stepped out into the front of the house and saw what was happening in the kitchen; flushing and averting his eyes, he flicked on the light switch and announced to the refrigerator, “The Izumis have been attacked by a vampire, probably.”

On the other side of the kitchen, near the countertop where Riku was resolutely not looking, Tsukumo Ryo snickered and Momo spluttered before saying, “Riku—you could have knocked—”

“I did,” said Riku to the refrigerator door. “Twice. And I didn’t keep my voice down when I was on the phone with Mitsuki, and I made sure my footsteps were loud when I came inside, and did I mention that my—that Iori got attacked by a kid in his class who went missing and he’s in the hospital for blood loss and the kid was found looking like a corpse covered in Iori’s blood with fangs in his mouth, because someone turned him and then he went and attacked the Izumis and now he is in a hospital full of a whole bunch of defenseless people!”

“Shit,” said Momo. There was movement from the vicinity of the kitchen counter, reflected on the chrome of the refrigerator door; Riku diverted his gaze to the cabinets next to it and did his best to ignore all movements in his peripheral vision until Momo had dragged Tsukumo Ryo from the room. Riku flicked his gaze around the room, shuddered at what he saw on the countertops and the stovetop, almost gagged when he noted that the stovetop was on and the stuff on it was burning.

I’ll just leave that alone, he thought, backing out of the kitchen and making a beeline to the front door. Maybe if I’m lucky it’ll catch fire, and the house will burn down, and Tsukumo Ryo will die in that fire.

Not that Riku had ever been so lucky in his life. If he had, maybe Tenn would still be alive today; if he had, maybe he wouldn’t be standing here, in Tsukumo Ryo’s house, unable to leave but hating to stay. If he had, maybe he would have anywhere else to go, any way to find somewhere nice to stay without having to abandon the humans hunted by vampires or leave Momo alone with Tsukumo Ryo. 

He stared at the lock on the door. It was easily undone; he could have opened it and walked into the night, walked all the way to the train station like he’d told Mitsuki he would do if Tsukumo Ryo tried to tag along. Maybe he would go away forever. Maybe he wouldn’t come back. Maybe—

Maybe Mitsuki’s fears would come true and Riku would collapse on the side of the road and have to go to the hospital, and then have to explain the entire sequence of events to concerned doctors and police officers and social workers. You see, I’m learning to be a vampire hunter, and I heard that my boyfriend got attacked by a vampire, but my mentor is my boyfriend’s brother’s ex-situationship and I was afraid that he’d want to bring the guy who broke them up, I think you’d call him a sugar daddy—

Nope. No, no, nope. Riku did not want to even think those words. He had first heard them when he was thirteen and Tsukumo Ryo had sat him down and explained, in the most disgusting and devastating detail possible, the intricacies of his relationship with Momo, and then had forced him to watch one of their sex tapes, refusing to let Riku close his eyes or look away from the screen. Not four hours later, at dinner, he had laughed about the probable deaths of Momo’s heroes at the hands of the vampire Kujo, and Momo had pressed his lips together so tightly they went white, and after dinner when Riku went to complain to Momo about his terrible friend he had been horrified to see that another sex tape was being made, and then Tsukumo Ryo had met eyes with Riku and smiled and put his hands around Momo’s throat, and Riku had not been permitted to leave until Tsukumo Ryo was finished. Riku didn’t know if Momo had seen him there. He had never been brave enough to ask.

The lock on the door was cold against his fingers, proof enough that walking five miles to the train station would wreak havoc on his lungs. If he had an attack now, he wouldn’t be able to fight the vampire who had attacked Iori. Nowhere to go. Nowhere ever to go. He was stuck here, and he was alone—even the terrible ghosts were gone. They had left before Tsukumo Ryo had ruined Momo's thing with Mitsuki, claiming that their spirits were now at rest and they could move on since Momo was no longer dating an asshole, and had promptly fucked off to go haunt a recording studio. Riku wasn't sure when or if they'd ever come back. He wasn't even sure if he wanted them to come back.

He took his fingers away from the door lock. It had fogged up around the space his fingers had touched, and he watched as that fog evaporated and the metal regained its luster. He did so again and again, waiting for Momo to be ready to go, hoping that Tsukumo Ryo would not be coming with them.

He got lucky, for once: when Momo came down the hall, dressed, with his bag over his shoulder and his car keys in one hand, he came alone. Riku didn’t comment on his swollen lips or on the marks on his neck or even on the strange and terrible burning smell coming from the kitchen—he just turned the lock and hurried out into the night air. It was cold, like he’d thought; even his first few breaths of the night air made his lungs ache. Still, though, it was better than the alternative. He waited eagerly by Momo’s car, cheered despite himself by this early freedom from Tsukumo Ryo’s house. He bounced on the balls of his feet and waited by the passenger door; Momo unlocked the car, as he always did, not by pressing the button but by inserting the key directly and turning. You never wanted vampires taking refuge in your car, after all. That was dangerous.

Riku threw himself in, tossing his bag to his feet and hurrying to lock the door and buckle himself in. Momo didn’t delay, either, thankfully, but Riku still waited until they had turned out of Tsukumo Ryo’s street and were making their way towards the highway to call Mitsuki back.

“We’re en route!” he said cheerfully as soon as his friend had picked up. “We should be in town in a few hours—should we go to Fonte Chocolat, or straight to the hospital?”

“Go to Fonte Chocolat, we’ll meet you guys there,” said Mitsuki. “If Iori hasn’t been discharged yet, I can give you a ride over to the hospital from there. He’s sleeping right now, but the doctors say that’s a good sign. It means he’s healing.”

“That’s good,” said Riku.

“Yeah. By the way, why did you hang up earlier when I asked you about your jo—”

“We’re going through a tunnel,” Riku said hastily, and hung up again. He glanced over at Momo. “Mitsuki said to meet him at Fonte Chocolat,” he reported. “Should I map us to there, or…?”

“No, it’s alright!” said Momo. “I know the way, and it’s better to keep the tracking from our phones down as much as possible, you know. That’s evidence permissible in court that can prove premeditation!”

“Just that you were going somewhere?”

“Yeah, if you don’t have a good reason to be there,” said Momo. “Or if your reason is to hunt vampires.”

“Right, juries don’t think vampires are real so they’ll think you mean killing people…” Riku sighed. “Do you think there’s any way we could ever convince people vampires are real?”

“Nope!” said Momo. “At least not in any way that would benefit us. What if vampires got legal rights? Then we’d really get in trouble for hunting them!”

“But they’re monsters,” said Riku.

“Yeah, but they also pretend not to be so that their victims let their guards down,” said Momo. “Groups of people are way easier to trick than individuals, and—well, you know how tempting it is to think a vampire might secretly retain some of its humanity.”

“Right,” said Riku, looking down at his hands as the light of the streetlamps passed over them. “I was just thinking it would be nice if we got, you know, paid for this. Or health insurance or anything. Or didn’t have to lie about it to our friends.”

“We do technically have the first two!” said Momo cheerily. “Since Ryo pays for our living expenses and medical care and everything.”

Riku wished very fervently that that was not the case. If it weren’t for the fact that he still needed to avenge Tenn, he didn’t think he’d accept the medical care at all; already, he was working freelance wherever he could to try and reduce the living expenses that Tsukumo Ryo was paying for. Tsukumo Ryo himself found this hilarious; Riku was fairly certain the man even knew of his desperate hopes to escape and took pleasure in finding ways to quash them.

“…Well, I still can’t tell anyone what my job is,” he said. “And Iori got attacked by a vampire just tonight.”

“Then you can tell Iori,” Momo suggested. “Since he’s already seen one in action, there’s no way he wouldn’t believe you!”

“That’s right!” said Riku, beaming at Momo. “Thanks, Momo-san!”

“No problem!” Momo chirped. “So, what exactly did Mitsuki say happened to Iori?”

“Right!” 

Riku reported the conversation, as best as he could remember it. As the sun rose and they continued on towards town, they discussed possibilities for what this might mean—if Isumi Haruka was a vampire or a vampire thrall or a captive of vampires, if it had been Haruka who had attacked Iori or some other vampire, whether or not Haruka, if he was a vampire, had just been turned that night, what Mitsuki had meant when he said that Haruka had been eating raw meat. Was this just a case of prion disease that they were overreacting to? What if Haruka was a zombie instead of a vampire? Were zombies even real? If they were, could Momo raise Yuki-san as his own personal pet zombie? Would it start a zombie apocalypse if he did so? Did Momo want a zombie apocalypse? —Yes, if it meant he could have his Yuki-san and Ban-san back. Riku, who did not want a zombie apocalypse under any circumstances, argued that it wouldn’t be having them back, it would be defiling their corpses, and didn’t Momo want them to rest in peace? Momo argued that they didn’t know for sure that Ban-san was dead; Riku cited the audio recording of Tenn killing him; Momo suggested that perhaps he had just passed out and woken up sometime later, after his phone died. This was an old argument and a well-worn one; Momo even had it with Tsukumo Ryo when he was feeling particularly good. Despite how many times it had been had, however, it carried them through the four and a half hour car ride and by the time they reached Fonte Chocolat they still hadn’t reached a consensus on what, exactly, had happened to Iori.

In the parking lot, Riku rubbed garlic juice all over his hands and then pulled out his phone to text Mitsuki that they were here; upon seeing an unread text asking about his job and whether or not he was in any danger, he decided that it would be safer to call, since he’d already successfully avoided the question twice.

Mitsuki picked up after a few rings. “Riku, is everything alright?” he said. “You didn’t get lost, did you?”

“…No, why?” said Riku.

“Because there aren’t any road tunnels within four hours of my house, Riku.”

Ah. Whoops?

“Huh, weird, I definitely thought we were in one at the time,” said Riku. “Maybe we were passing under a bridge. Um, but that isn’t important right now! We’re here—at Fonte Chocolat. What should we do?”

“Well, you have perfect timing,” said Mitsuki. “We’re on our way home from the hospital now, we should be there in about fifteen minutes. Iori got really lucky—he just needs to rest and watch out for signs of salmonella, and keep in contact with the doctors.”

“Salmonella?” Riku repeated. “Why?”

“From the raw chicken Haruka was eating,” said Mitsuki. “Apparently, he started vomiting uncontrollably when they put a feeding tube in him, so they think that he might have gotten it from the chicken and warned us to keep an eye out for any symptoms Iori might show.”

“Um, yeah, that’s probably a good idea,” said Riku. “And maybe other symptoms, too. Hey, do you know if the doctors tried giving Haruka any more raw meat, or blood or anything?”

“Like a transfusion?”

“No, to drink.”

“Uh, no, that’s a biohazard, Riku,” said Mitsuki. “Also, we don’t eat blood, and neither does Isumi Haruka, what? Of course they didn’t give him any blood to drink—or feed him any raw meat! That’s unsanitary and dangerous! Food codes exist for a reason, you know—”

And then Mitsuki went into the various federal laws and regulations surrounding an establishment for serving food to the people, especially those related to the serving of meat, cooked and raw, and the presence of biohazards such as blood. The long and short of it was that it was completely unacceptable for a hospital to feed anyone, let alone a patient, blood and raw meat. The he passed the phone over to Iori, who sounded extremely woozy but still gave Riku an even more thorough lecture on why it was a terrible, terrible idea to go around eating raw meat, all the laws that prohibited a hospital or a bakery from serving raw meat, the various diseases you could get from taking someone else’s blood inside your body, and then finally accused Isumi Haruka of having rabies before passing the phone back to Mitsuki.

“Now that you understand how terrible of an idea that is,” said Mitsuki, “why don’t you tell me more about your job, Riku?”

Riku hung up the phone. This did not do much, however, as the bakery’s delivery van was just now pulling into the parking lot, which meant that Riku could no longer escape from any uncomfortable conversations about his employment, even though it was in no way related to—

No, Riku hunted vampires, and Iori had probably just been attacked by a vampire. It was related. Did Mitsuki maybe suspect what he did? Had Momo told him about it during their short-lived and ill-fated relationship? Was that the real reason they broke up? Riku had always assumed that it was what Tsukumo Ryo had done with Momo in Fonte Chocolat during business hours…but maybe Mitsuki just didn’t want to date a vampire hunter? That would be a much nicer way to end a relationship. It would almost be a relief.

The van parked, and Mitsuki and Mrs. Izumi helped Iori out of it. His hand was bandaged and splinted, and he looked exhausted and pale but still human, still blessedly, thankfully human. Riku hurried over, Momo hot on his heels. They both smelled strongly enough of garlic that they got strange looks from all four members of the Izumi family, but nobody asked until, up in Iori’s bedroom, he tried to hold Riku’s hand with his non-bandaged one and then gave him a dark look.

“Why is your hand sticky ?” he said.

“Probably the garlic juice,” Riku said honestly. “Is it that bad?”

“Yes,” said Iori. “Riku, why is there garlic juice on your hand?”

“Um. For work?”

“For work?”

“Right!” said Mitsuki cheerily, clapping his hands. “Momo, maybe you would know. What in the fuck is Riku’s real job and why does it involve him staying up all night in some place where he doesn’t even feel safe to sleep ? What’s going on there? And what does it have to do with garlic juice?”

Riku and Momo locked eyes.

“…Before I answer that,” Momo said carefully, “I’m going to need to examine the injury on Iori’s hand, and also hear everything about his encounter with the thing claiming to be Isumi Haruka last night.”

“We don’t know that it wasn’t actually Haruka at that point, Momo-san,” Riku pointed out. “There could have been another—”

“No, it was only Isumi-san and I there, he just had something really seriously wrong with him,” said Iori. “He kept rambling about Yotsuba-san’s little sister and sneakily eating raw meat, and he tried to leave when I called emergency services. I stopped him, because obviously wherever he’s been has been a complete hellhole, and then he grabbed my hand and bit it open and started drinking my actual blood, so I hit him over the head with my radio until he passed out and then called emergency services again. I don’t really remember what happened after that.”

“You went to get ibuprofen, dry-swallowed some, and then passed out when I came out to see what was going on,” said Mitsuki. “I thought you were going to die!”

“I’m sorry, Nii-san,” said Iori. “I didn’t mean to worry you. But I couldn’t let Isumi-san leave, either. I need to find out what happened to him.”

“I think I might actually know,” said Momo. “Something similar happened to…someone I care a lot about around five years ago, and also to Riku’s older brother, Tenn. But I really need to see your hand first.”

The Izumi brothers met eyes, and then Iori broke his brother’s gaze and held his injured hand out to Momo.

“Here,” he said. “It’s better to do it when I’m still hopped up on painkillers. We can practice changing my bandages while we’re at it. I just…I really need to know.”

“I don’t think you’ll like the answer,” Riku whispered as Momo carefully removed the bandages and examined Iori’s ruined hand from every possible angle before kicking open his bag and removing his first-aid kit in order to re-bandage it.

“Momo,” Mitsuki said, his voice even, cheery, and furious, “why do you have that. I—I’m not sure half the things in there are actually legal to carry around with you.”

“I have a good supplier!” Momo said cheerfully. “Don’t worry, it’s all sterile.”

“Don’t worry? How am I not supposed to worry when—when—”

“It’s fine, Nii-san,” said Iori. “We have bigger concerns right now.”

“They should not have given you opioids,” Mitsuki muttered. “This is a serious concern, please and thank you. —Riku, please tell me you don’t agree with Momo.”

“I don’t,” said Riku. “He isn’t a good supplier, he’s probably the second-worst person I’ve ever met—no, worst person, Kujo’s not a person.”

Mitsuki sighed again. “Riku, are you trying to compete with yourself today for ‘most disturbing thing I’ve heard out of your mouth, ever’?” he said. “What is going through your head today?”

“Um,” said Riku. “Vampires?”

“Vampires?”

“Vampires aren’t real, Nanase-san,” said Iori.

Riku pouted at him. “You were calling me ‘Riku’ earlier!” he accused. “Why did you stop now?”

“What? No I didn’t,” said Iori, his face immediately going a flaming red. 

“You were, but we’re not getting into that right now,” said Mitsuki. “Remember my earlier statement about opioids and try not to freak out. Riku. What’s going on?”

Riku glanced at Momo, who was just about finished with Iori’s bandage. He put his arm down and packed up his first-aid kit and then stood, looking deadly serious—far more serious than either Izumi brother had seen him look before.

“Riku, your instincts were right,” he said, and then turned to face Mitsuki and Iori. “Iori, you were attacked by a vampire last night—what remains of the Isumi Haruka you once knew. Vampires are real, and they’re deadly dangerous, and we do actually have proof, if you need it. And—Mitsuki. This is our job—what Riku and I do. I’m a vampire hunter, and he’s my apprentice. Our main quarry is an ancient vampire named Kujo who killed my Yuki-san and stole my Ban-san, and who turned Riku’s twin brother, Tenn, but we also track down and eliminate any vampires we come across, because they’re all monsters, and they’re all serious threats to humans.”

Iori took a deep breath. “Okay,” he said. “Momo-san, I mean this in the nicest and most respectful way possible. You desperately need a psych evaluation, and I think Riku should get one too.”

“You called me Riku again!” Riku crowed. “And no, I swear, Momo-san and I are both totally sane. We have proof, I can show you—”

“You say Isumi Haruka’s a vampire, right?” Mitsuki interrupted.

“Right,” said Momo.

“Okay. That’s the proof, then. I’ll take you guys to the hospital to visit him and then we can see if you’re right. Sound good?”

“Ugh, I just got back from the hospital, though,” said Iori.

Mitsuki patted his shoulder. “You rest here and I’ll come back and report to you,” he said. “And Riku, you’d better take a nap in the car, alright?”

“Alright,” Riku said meekly. He was, after all, very tired, and they were about to hunt a vampire.

“Great,” said Mitsuki. “Let’s go.”